I have to admit, there is a soft spot in my heart for conference proceedings. Once upon a time, when you wanted to quickly dive into a new area of astronomy you went to the university or observatory library and searched out the ASP or IAU conference proceedings on the topic of your passion, and then wandered off to read it cover-to-cover. As an undergrad, I got my introduction to pulsating variable stars that way, and in graduate school I am guilty of losing 4 cloudy nights of my life to a periodical on cataclysmic variable stars for no particularly good reason. Today, I teach at a small college that doesn’t have astronomy conference proceedings in its library, so when I want to get my fill of something new, I either have to fork over the cash, or wait on...